VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia
STORY: Yuto Tsukuda
ART: Shun Saeki
TRANSLATION: Adrienne Beck
CONTRIBUTOR: Yuki Morisaki
LETTERS: James Gaubatz; Mara Coman
EDITOR: Jennifer LeBlanc
ISBN: 978-1-9747-1258-8; paperback (April 2020); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
192pp, B&W, $9.99 US, $12.99 CAN, £6.99 UK
Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma is a shonen manga series written by Yuto Tsukuda and illustrated by Shun Saeki. Yuki Morisaki also works as a contributor, providing the recipes for the series. Food Wars! was serialized in the Japanese manga magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump, from November 2012 to June 2019. VIZ Media published an English-language edition of the manga as a paperback graphic novel series from August 2014 to June 2020 under two imprints: first, “Shonen Jump Advanced” and then, “Shonen Jump.”
Food Wars! focuses on teenager Soma Yukihira. He grows up cooking in his father's Yukihira Family Restaurant. The 15-year-old wants to be a better chef than his father, Joshiro Yukihira (Saiba), so he hones his skills day in and day out. His father decides to enroll him in a classy culinary school, Totsuki Saryo Culinary Institute, a place that prides itself on a 10 percent graduation rate. If Soma Yukihira really does not want to attend Totsuki, how can he succeed?
As Food Wars!: Shokugeki No Soma, Vol. 35 (Chapters 300 to 308; entitled “The Divine Tongue's Despair”) opens, the “Blue,” a world-renowned cooking tournament for the best of the best young chefs from around the world, rages on. This year, for the first time, traditional chefs will clash with the “underground noir” (or “cuisiniers noir”) chefs. Soma, eager for a rematch with the noir, Asahi Saiba, who defeated him, heads to a certain famous old castle in a famous city where the event will be held.
Totsuki's brightest: Soma, Megumi Tadokoro, and Takumi Aldini, as well as recent Totsuki graduate, Eishi Tsukasa, have joined the competition, but they are swiftly dispatched – except for Soma. Now, their classmate, Erina Nakiri, who got to skip the early stages of the “Blue” because of her past achievements, is forced to face off against multiple opponents. But who is doing the forcing? Who is “Lady Mana,” and what does she have to do with the “curse of the 'Divine Tongue'”?
Plus, Soma finally has his rematch with Saiba!
[The volume includes recipes and miscellaneous illustrations.]
THE LOWDOWN: The Food Wars! manga races towards its conclusion. The narrative prepares to answer the question of who is the best?
Food Wars!: Shokugeki No Soma Graphic Novel Volume 35 is the second-to-last (or penultimate) volume of the series. There are some surprise reveals in regard to Erina Nakiri's past, and one of them is the answer to an obvious question. Writer Yuto Tsukuda and artist Shun Saeki usually delve into the details of recipes, the processes of cooking, and the skills of the competing chefs. In Vol. 35, they seem more intent on moving onto the final confrontations, so this volume lacks the full fun of the cooking battles that we have been getting since the very beginning of this series.
However, Adrienne Beck's translation catches the drama and conflict between characters in the raw and with edgy intimacy, so that takes the sting out of having only one cooking battle presented in some detail. Letterers James Gaubatz and Mara Coman expertly close in on the focus on the dialogue and the exposition that prepares for the grand finale.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Readers hungry for good manga will want the “Shonen Jump” title, Food Wars!: Shokugeki No Soma.
A
8 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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